Its nice to see people are eager to get involved in this!

Firstly, I'd like to just state that opentarget was the guy who originally suggested this and want to make it clear that it is not my intention to steal his thunder/idea by posting this "getting things rolling" thread! I'm just an impatient person!

Secondly, I think its too early for people to be writing detailed synopsises! Wait until Hirazi/owei get the new forum section set up! I think at the beginning we should just be posting single sentence snippets of ideas/concepts, or even single events that might fit into the broader picture.

It would be nice to do this as democratically as possible, but democracy has its limits as we all know! Like any job, we're not going to have everything our own way. Even if you're not keen on the story, idea or concept it doesn't mean you can't muck in on creating some assets or animating a shot. It's still going to be fun and you'll have something you can stick on your CV/portfolio/showreel.

I think before we get carried away with ideas we need to compile a list of who will be interested in contributing, regardless of the storyline/subject matter and what you'd like to do (modelling, design, animation, rendering, etc). We won't hold you to it (well, we might, lol) but it would be nice to see what the numbers are.

So stand up and be counted!!

I'm In. (As they say in the Dragon's Den) Rigging, Animation, modelling, texturing. Most stuff.

EDIT: 2 good book references:
Inspired 3D Short Film Production by Pepe Valencia, Jeremy Cantor
CGI Filmmaking: The Creation of Ghost Warrior by Timothy Albee http://www.kazeghostwarrior.com/flash/index.htm
"One person, Two computers, 6 months, 22 minutes"

Noted.

Yeah, i pretty much expected that kind of reply from somebody. I'm very much an "idea guy" as many people put it. Which also means that i rarely get any of my ideas "done"... so when it comes down to getting something done... i will gladly differ to other peoples judgment.

But yeah, I think that means "I'm In"

In order of skill: Animating, Modeling, Sound Design, Audio Mastering, Rigging. Anything else i can do so long as i'm not expected to be an expert at it right away.

Well, I sincerely hope the willingness to participate counts for something, not just the level of skill, as that would probably exclude me from the project. I believe, and not just in my own interest, it should be a project in which anyone regardless of skill/talent should be able to somehow participate...

Well as I was saying before I am very interested in such project. So...

I'm in. Modeling, texturing, a little bit of all other things

p.s.

Thanks for that link. I saw this website long time ago and I though this project was never finished.

hey...i go away to london for a few days and the project is already picking up steam...good job guys.
i agree with a lot of what was said in the first post, anything after 2-3mins is getting long, we want to get it made and made in a decent timeframe.
I have a few ideas id like to put forward but let me enjoy the end of my holiday first
talk monday!

haha thanks for that, im as antsy as you to get things moving and its great to see so many people interested.



as i said in the "interest poll" thread it would be great to do it in a way that everyone has a vote and decisions are structured that way, but as you said democracy has limits and i suggest that a group of project leaders are appointed to manage and keep this thing on track. what do yous think of that?

as for whether the piece should be a technical (running orc) or a story driven narrative...thats a bone of contention for me. while i can see the reason for a technical piece for the community's first project(easier to manage and structure) i can see that it also has major limitations in what we can do with it afterwards, why would we want to spend so much time and effort on this project if the only people who see it are softimage users...adding a story to the project means it can even be pushed to festivals and shown to a wider audience than just the CG community wouldn't you think?
im not pushing for an EPIC or anything but a simple story that can still show off the skills of the team and the capabilities of softimage as a package.

ether way im putting myself IN REGARDLESS for the project.
modeler/ uv&texture/ lighting&rendering/ basic rigging/ materials....a bit of everything.
ps, im new to softimage after years and years on max, but im more or less back to what i was in the max days. and i want this project to help me raise my personal bar, i think everyone interested should think about what you would personally like to get from this project and make sure you get it if we can give it.

Okay, as you can see, our Admin owei (Thanks!) has instated a dedicated subforum for this project, so we can stop wondering, what might happen and start to actually make it happen. First order of business: democracy versus leadership! Democracy is a nice little Greek invention, but it can be counter-productive. My idea of a viable setup would be a system of benevolent (if not even "enlightened") leadership, listening to "the people", but not necessarily putting everything to a vote. I would nominate "opentarget" and "redmotion" to fulfill this role together.
To really get things started the next order of business seems to be to finally settle this "Orcs" versus "story"-debate...

thank you very much for nominating me for a leader positions...ill do my best to keep the project moving along and will work close with redmotion(if he accepts) to build a structure for the duration of the piece.
as for the ORC vs STORY argument we need to get this agreed upon before...well before anything at all!
so here's my opinions on the pros and cons for both

Orc...(technical piece)
Well it would defiantly be cool to do a short that is very technical based, it would look cool, would raise the skills of the people involved and will act as a showpiece for both SI and the community itself. but in my opinion that is where it ends, the lack of a narrative would stop the piece developing from technical CG to a piece of film...ie its just a technical piece. but that being said i do see the benefit of starting small and then maybe tackling a bigger project in the future.

Story...(Narrative piece)
A story driven piece can be all of the above and tell a tale in the process, there is no reason whatsoever that just because its following a narrative it shouldn't be any less technically stunning. I believe that it could open it up to a wider audience and even make it possible to enter into festivals...if its as good as we want it to be it might even do well in festivals and further add kudos to all the participants. I cant imagine that adding a structured story to this project would add to much to the workload and i think even if it dose then it would be worth it.

lets hear your thoughts on this.

I vote for the story based project. I find it is much more interesting and can also, as you said, be presented to festivals. On one side we are open to any kind of style and on the other I still think anyone can learn a lot and improve their skills. You do not need to participate in a heave scene to learn something from others. So my vote is totaly for the story based concept.

Okay, I think, it's time to put this to an actual vote to get a better idea, where everyone stands!